Tuesdays at 9:20pm on ABC TV

Yemen - A Nation on Drugs

Broadcast: 18/07/2000

Reporter: Trevor Bormann

SECOND STORYEPISODE 3SERIES 10

Transcript

"If you take the regular schedule of the Yemeni, you see that from the morning till 12 or 1, they work. After that they leave and go the Mafraj where they start chewing Qat for the rest of the day." Walid Al Saqqaf, newspaper publisher.

You might think this is just a sensible cultural response to the punishing Yemeni climate but in fact it's a description of a narcotic obsession threatening this historic nation in the Middle East.

Ninety per cent of the men and fifty per cent of the women follow this regime daily. Qat is a leaf that is chewed for it's mild stimulant effect. There is no evidence that it's chemically addictive or harmful to health but it has taken such a hold in Yemen that it's ruining the economy and giving the country a bad reputation.

Fruit plantations are being ripped up to feed the Qat obsession and it's use is more or less universal among students and children.

Correspondent Trevor Bormann discovers there is a nascent anti-Qat movement, but it's making little headway against a practice that has so permeated the national psyche.

"There is no social stigma here against chewing Qat so this isn't an act of rebellion against the parents, it's probably done with the parents." Barbara Bodine, US Ambassador in Yemen.